Valentines
by Halcyon
Summary: I just couldn't leave off where I did. Buffy and Spike have finally gotten together, but now what?
1. Pink Envelope

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
A/N: This is my first fic. I needed something to cheer me up after reading those absolutely horrendous wildfeeds.  
  
Valentines  
  
"What's this?" Buffy thought to herself.  
  
She leaned down and picked up a pale pink envelope left on her doorstep. Seeing her name scrawled on the envelope, she opened it on her way in the house. A big green frog with hearts in his eyes stared up at her from the front of the card.  
  
"Oh, God. I don't even want to know." she said under her breath.  
  
"Don't want to know what?" Dawn asked, coming down the stairs.  
  
"Huh? Uh, nothing. I was just discussing the ingredients in the Doublemeat Meal with myself. Yuck. I don't know how people can eat that stuff." Buffy said, quickly hiding the card in her bag.  
  
"I have got to get a life. People are going to start thinking that I'm insane if I keep going around having conversations with myself about HIM." she thought to herself.  
  
"So work was okay?" Dawn asked.  
  
"Yeah, same old, same old. Families with whiny little children that spill everywhere, old people demanding their senior discount, just another typical night at the Doublemeat Palace. Oh, and to top it off, I have to work a double shift on Valentine's Day. I guess everyone else has a life and need some time off to be with their sweethearts. But hey, more money for Buffy, right?" Buffy replied.  
  
"Umm, about Valentine's Day… Buffy, could I please, please, please go to the Bronze with Janice? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" whined Dawn.  
  
"Dawn… the last time I let you do something on a holiday with Janice, you nearly got yourself killed. Why should I let you go?" Buffy responded.  
  
"Please, Buffy? I've been really good since Halloween. My grades have gone up, and I haven't gotten into any trouble. Please? Janice's older sister is going to be there. She's 18, and she's really responsible and mature. She wouldn't let us do anything that you wouldn't. Please? I'll bet that some of the scoobies will be there as well. They could always check on me. Please, please can't I go?" Dawn rambled.  
  
Buffy sighed. "Was I ever like this at 15?" she thought.  
  
"I guess you may go to the Bronze tomorrow night. However, there will be some strict ground rules, young lady. You will be home at midnight, and you will call if something comes up. I will have Xander and Anya check up on you periodically, as I know that they have big Valentiney plans for the Bronze." Buffy stated.  
  
"Yippee!" Dawn squealed, and ran and gave Buffy a big hug. "You're the greatest older sister!"  
  
"Hey, I'm your only older sister" Buffy said with a smirk. "Just promise me you will be careful. I don't want a repeat vamp performance, okay?"  
  
"Hey, after Halloween, even I don't want a repeat performance. I'll be careful. I'm gonna call Janice, she'll be so excited!"  
  
With this Dawn ran upstairs to room to gab with Janice, and Buffy was left alone with her thoughts and her card.  
  
Buffy walked over to the couch and sat down. She pulled off her jacket, took off her messenger bag, and put her aching feet up on the coffee table, all the while debating whether or not to look at the inside of the card. She knew exactly who the card was from, she didn't have to read it to know, but she was afraid to see what, if anything, it said. After all, she had only broken up with him two weeks prior. If he started doing these sweet mushy things for her, she didn't know how she could keep up her resolve to stay away from him.  
  
She thought back to that scene in his demolished crypt when she had told him that she couldn't love him, that their relationship was killing her. He looked so broken, and she felt like she could have shattered into a million pieces when she saw the pain in his eyes.  
  
"Why do I always cause people so much pain? I send my first boyfriend to hell, then I send my next into the arms of vampire ho's because he can't deal with my being stronger than him, and my last boyfriend… Oh God, since when have I thought of him as a boyfriend? Ugh, my last boyfriend I crush because I can't give him what he needs." She was unconsciously running her fingers over the smooth vellum of the card as she was having the inner one- sided conversation with herself.  
  
"Hey, Buffy! Whatcha up to?" The words startled Buffy out of her reverie and she quickly shoved the card back into her bag. Willow was standing in front of her with that knowing look in her eyes. "Did you get a Valentine's card?" she asked.  
  
"Huh? Nope, no way, no Valentine's card for me. Why would I get a Valentine's Day card? It isn't even Valentine's Day, and I don't have a boyfriend, and…"  
  
"Okay, okay, I get it. That pink envelope that you just put in your bag *isn't* a Valentine's Day card, cuz Valentine's Day isn't until tomorrow. Must be one of those new ways that door to door salespeople are trying to get customers, right?" Willow said, trying to contain the giggles that were trying to escape. Buffy had looked so guilty when she had caught her staring at that envelope.  
  
"Yeah, those darn salespeople, always trying to sell me a vacuum cleaner or a set of encyclopedias. This must be the newest way to not have a door slammed in your face. No person at the door, no way to slam it on them," Buffy joked lamely. "How obvious can I get?" she thought. "Get a hold of yourself, girl! Spike equals BAD! How many times do you have to tell yourself that?" She paused a bit in her thoughts, "Many, many, many more times before I start to believe it."  
  
"Earth to Buffy! Earth to Buffy!" Willow said, waving a hand in front of her face.  
  
"Huh? Oh, sorry. Long day at the DMP. Did you have a good day? Class and all?"  
  
The red head sighed, "Yeah, it was great. I had an awesome Philosophy class. We were discussing Aristotle's beliefs about friendship. And after that, I ran into Tara, and we actually had a conversation! I know it's a little soon, but I was thinking about asking her to the big bash at the Bronze tomorrow night, just as friends of course. Do you think I should? I mean, do you think that she would actually, like say she would? After all that I've done in the past few months, I would understand if she never wanted to do anything with me, ever again." Willow said, all of the pep leaving her as she continued to ramble about all of the bad choices she had made in the past few months.  
  
"Will, hey Will!" Buffy said. "Don't beat yourself up for what happened in the past. All you can do about that is learn from it and move on. And you just said that you and Tara had an actual conversation, I think that means that she doesn't hate you. She's probably just as unsure of how to go about this as you are. Things happen for a reason, Wills. Take things slow, and let her be in charge."  
  
"Your right. Things do happen for a reason, and all of that bad stuff is behind us now. I just hope that one day she can forgive me for everything that I did that hurt her. But maybe a latte at the Bronze would start to make up for things? You know what they say, nothing like a cup a joe to soothe the system." Willow said with a giggle.  
  
"What are they teaching you at school?" Buffy said, shaking her head and smiling. "Uf, I'm off to take a nice long bubble bath. You would think that after the many, many years of working on their feet, people would have come up with a shoe that was both stylish and comfortable to work in."  
  
She grabbed her messenger bag and started to head up the stairs, where a nice steaming bath filled with vanilla scented bubbles was calling her name.  
  
"Hey, Buffy!" Willow called after her.  
  
"What?" she said.  
  
"If you ever want to talk about Mr. Misterioso, I'm all ears!" Willow said with a wink and a grin.  
  
"When I do, you'll be the first to know!" she called back. "Right after Spike…" a little voice in her head said. 


	2. Spic and Span

Valentines  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
A/N: This is my first fic. I needed something to cheer me up after reading those absolutely horrendous wildfeeds for Entropy and Seeing Red. Please read and review, it would make my little heart go pitter patter! Thanks to all of you who have given it such nice reviews so far(.  
  
  
  
"Ahhhhhhh, that feels so good," Buffy moaned to herself as she slid into the bath filled with mounds of vanilla scented bubbles. She smiled as she lay her head against the bath pillow and said, "There's nothing like a soak in the tub and some Calgon take me away time to make up for a day filled with the sights and smells of the DMP."  
  
All around her candlelight flickered in the darkened room, and the soft strains of classical music could be heard. Freshly laundered fluffy towels were piled high on the vanity chair, waiting. Buffy looked around and noticed that room was sparkling clean, just as if the little cleaning fairies had come in while she was away at work. "I am so glad that Willow has finally come out of her slump and decided to do a little cleaning," she thought. "It certainly makes coming home easier."  
  
After 20 minutes of soaking in the tub, she decided it would be best to finish the rest of her bath quickly as she was beginning to resemble a human prune. A prune delicately scented of vanilla, but a prune nonetheless. She hopped out of the bath, grabbed a towel, toweled off, and slathered on a creamy body lotion all while humming along with the enchanting melody of Lieberstraum by Liszt. When she was little, her parents used to play the song to help her to fall asleep at night, and even now it still had a calming effect on her.  
  
After hanging up her wet towels, because if Willow was kind enough to have cleaned the bathroom from top to bottom she could certainly return the favor by not leaving her towels in a heap on the floor, she padded to her room. Once inside, she shut the door and went to the closet to peruse her overflowing wardrobe. "If I have to patrol the night before Valentine's Day knowing full well that I have no Valentine to come home to and only 16 hours of pure hell to look forward to tomorrow, I'm gonna have some fun tonight," Buffy said to the mirror. "But what am I going to do about that?" she asked herself, as her eyes caught on the reflection of a small sliver of pink sticking out of her messenger bag in the mirror. "What if it simply tells me that he never really loved me and was just using me to get over Dru? What if it says that he still loves me after all that I've done to him? What if it says that he loves me, but he can't be around me, just like all of the rest of the men in my life have?" Her mind was screaming these thoughts at her until she was as tense as she had been before her bath.  
  
"God, Buffy! Get a hold of yourself! You can't go jumping to conclusions before you have even read the darn card. Maybe it doesn't say anything at all?" she admonished herself silently.  
  
She sighed and said out loud, "Well, no news is good news, and that is a Valentine's Day card. And Valentine's Day cards do not get opened until Valentine's Day! No reason to worry about spilled milk if it hasn't been spilled yet!"  
  
"Yeah, you just don't want to face the truth" that same little voice in her head that had been so difficult to shut up lately, said.  
  
"I will not think about Spike," she said as she grabbed a pair of charcoal gray suede pants from her closet. "He's bad, he's evil, he's evil and bad, and he's so damn sexy… NO! NO! NO! I will not think about how sexy he is. I will think about how I'm going to patrol and kick some vampire butt tonight, and Spike's a vampire and his butt is really cute, and… Aghh!!!!!!!" she moaned as she pulled out a long sleeved dove gray shirt that had a sprinkling of glitter on the sleeves. "If Willow can be magic free for this long, then I can be Spike thought free for at least one night! Tomorrow, deal with it tomorrow," she told herself.  
  
Buffy pulled on her patrolling ensemble, ran a brush through her almost dry hair, put some wax on her hands and did the cute little flippy thing with the ends, and made her way out of her room and downstairs to the kitchen.  
  
As soon as she walked through the door, she stopped dead in her tracks. The kitchen was sparkling clean. The sink gleamed, the stove looked almost happy enough to start dancing, and the floor was so clean that she could have eaten off of it. "Oh my goodness," she thought. "If a normal conversation with Tara was enough to get Willow to clean the bathroom and the kitchen from top to bottom, I wonder what she'll do when they get back together?"  
  
She walked over to the shiny happy fridge and upon opening it, she was once again in shock. When she had left for work, all the fridge had held was a half empty carton of milk, a couple of eggs, and a few apples and the many bottles of condiments it seemed like they were always collecting. Now it was filled to the brim with fresh veggies, fruits, pop, bottled water, juice, bread, chicken, and cheese. A quick look in the freezer told her that it had also been stocked with Dawn friendly food like frozen pizza and waffles. "My, my Willow. When you get going, you really get going," Buffy said in awe. "I have to remember to thank her and Tara tomorrow when I see them," she decided as she grabbed a pear to munch on before heading out the back door into the night. 


	3. Pink Glitter and Little Kitties

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
A/N: Watched Entropy last night. I doubt that this entire mess will be resolved this season, and I am so not looking forward to 4 months of re-run hell!  
  
Valentines  
  
Willow walked into the kitchen on 1630 Revello Drive and just stared. "Wow," she breathed. When she had left for class that afternoon the kitchen had been an absolute pigsty, so much so that she couldn't face going in there for supper and had just popped out to the Espresso Pump to have one of their delicious specialty sandwiches. "Dawn must have really made tracks," she thought, "cuz I wasn't gone that long this afternoon. She must want to do something for Valentine's and thought the best way to Buffy's heart was through a thorough cleaning."  
  
Willow walked over to the junk drawer and grabbed what had brought her into the kitchen in the first place, a tube of pink sparkly glitter glue. "Just what I needed, this, some markers, construction paper, glue, and scissors will make the best Valentine's Day card! I hope Tara likes it, and doesn't think I'm being too presumptuous," she contemplated. "I'll just have to go more towards the 'I'm happy you're still my friend' route than the 'I love you, baby, and want to jump your bones' route."  
  
With the tube of glitter tightly clutched in her hand, she made her way to the living room where she had set up her card making shop. Several different shades of pink and red paper sat in stacks on the coffee table along with the rest of the accessories necessary to create a stunning card. Taking a seat with her legs crossed next to the short table, she contemplated which color would make the best background. Scarlet? Nope, too red. Crimson? Nope, too much like blood. Pale pink? Nah, too blah. Fuchsia? Well… Puce? Nope that reminded her of that old '80s TV movie where the head of the prom committee wanted a Puce in Paris theme. Ruby? That was it! That was the perfect color; it would complement the pink glitter glue and was more elegant looking than the rest of the colors.  
  
Willow got busy and after diligently working for an hour, she had the best looking "Just Friends" Valentine ever. Well, she thought so anyways. It didn't matter that the glitter glue was a little smudged when she had been just a mite bit impatient for it to dry so that she could paste on the little pink hearts she had cut out, or that the little hearts weren't all perfectly matching. Her grandma always used to say to her, "If it is made with love, it will be perfect." And she had definitely made this with love, lots and lots of love.  
  
Willow yawned and decided she had best call it a night. She wanted to be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow. She had gotten up the courage to call Tara after she had spoken with Buffy and had asked her to coffee at the Bronze. Just as friends, of course. She had made that clear so that Tara knew that she wasn't trying to rush things just because they had had a civil conversation that day. Fate was smiling upon her that day she thought, because Tara had quickly agreed to meet at the Bronze tomorrow evening, just as friends, of course.  
  
She put her card in a safe spot and went upstairs to turn in. She could hear Dawn still gabbing on the phone with one of her many friends. "I don't know how her ear can take it," she thought. "The only time she isn't on that telephone is when she's in school or eating a meal! I should really tell her to go to bed, but it's a Friday night, and this is probably the next best thing to being out with them," she decided, thinking back to last week when Buffy had grounded Dawn for a week for borrowing her best leather coat and her favorite earrings without asking.  
  
"Tomorrow's Valentine's Day!" the little voice in her head squealed with excitement. "The sooner you get to bed and go to sleep, the sooner tomorrow will come." With a smile on her face and thoughts of Tara in her head, Willow made her way to her room with a quick peek and a mouthed "Good night" to Dawn.  
  
While Willow was busy cutting out little hearts, Buffy had been out looking for a good slay. She had been through three cemeteries already, and there wasn't any action at all. "Great," she thought, "even the vamps have a life and don't need to be out lurking on a Friday night." With a sigh she sat down on one of the ever so popular stone benches that were everywhere in that particular cemetery. "These must have been designed and bought by dead people," she thought. "Not only are they uncomfortable as hell, they make your butt ice cold. I wonder who comes up with ideas for stone benches? I mean, it isn't like you wake up one day and suddenly have the epiphany 'I have the perfect make it rich scheme-stone benches!'" Buffy was so entranced in the ridiculous one sided conversation in her head that she didn't notice the rustle of the grass behind her or felt the rush of air that caressed her as the unnoticed entity deposited a little package next to her on the bench and left as quickly as it had come.  
  
"Now a cushy bench that would stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer and would keep your butt nice and comfy would be a great invention. I wonder if that infomercial guy, you know that one that makes the spray on hair, has ever thought of that? I wonder how much he made from that spray on hair?" she thought as her one sided conversation took another strange turn. Suddenly, the crack of a branch pulled her from her thoughts and as she reached for her stake, her hand brushed against a soft little package. "What?" she thought. "That wasn't here when I sat down, when did it get here?" she wondered. "No time to think about that now, Buffy. Not when you can see a pair of yellow eyes glowing from those bushes over there," she told herself. Pocketing the package, she crept over to the bushes and was about to call her opponent out when a little black kitty came streaking out from them. "A cat? A cat? I was about to slay a little kitty cat?" she said out loud. "Where is your head today, Buffy?"  
  
She looked at the kitty, which was now cowering underneath the same stone bench that she had just been pondering. It was young, maybe only a couple of months old, and looked like it hadn't had enough to eat since it had been born. "Here kitty, kitty," she called. "Come here kitty, I won't hurt you." Seeing the cat brought back memories of the night she had accompanied Spike to his game of kitten poker and the ensuing mess with the loan shark when she had thought she was Joan the Vampire Slayer. And then her mind drifted to that kiss that she and Spike had shared in the Bronze. "Why can't things just go back to the way they were?" she whispered. It was all so easy then. She and Spike could actually have a conversation without insulting each other or beating the other up. But then came the discovery that she had come back wrong somehow. Somehow his chip didn't work on her, and her insecurities with men came back even stronger. She knew that he could hurt her, not just physically, but emotionally as well. She was falling for him, but she couldn't make herself take that last step and actually admit to loving him. If she did, then he would hold all of the cards, and she didn't think that she could continue to go on living if one more beloved man in her life left her without a backwards glance. So she continued to pummel him, and insult him, and incite him to give her a reason to not like him.  
  
She gave a sad sigh, and with a wry smirk said quietly, "All it takes is a little kitty, and I'm thinking about Spike."  
  
While she had been contemplating her life, the little kitty had been slowly inching its way over to her. At first it had been scared of her; the woman had looked like it was going to hurt her, but then the woman had stopped, and had gotten a sad look in her eyes. The kitty realized this look, and being a very nice kitty, she went over to rub against the woman's legs and try and cheer her up. The kitty started purring as she was weaving her way in and around Buffy's legs, and the noise brought Buffy out of her sad interlude. She looked down and saw the little kitty and fell instantly in love with the fluffy little creature. She reached to pick it up, and the kitty settled into her arms like she had known her all her life. "Guess we have a new addition to the family," she told the little kitty. "Now what am I going to name you? I think I'll wait until I get home so Dawn can help me pick out a name for you. Of course, we'll have to stop by the 24 hour grocery store and pick up some food and litter for you. We can't have you going hungry anymore!" With that said, Buffy felt better than she had in the past two weeks, and she took off towards the grocery store.  
  
A pair of intense blue eyes watched from high up in a tree as Buffy made her way out of the cemetery. A small smile had played on his mouth when he saw her pick up and cuddle the little kitten. "She will be happy," he said. "I swear it on my undead life." 


	4. The Newest Summers

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
A/N: Thanks to all of you who have been giving me such nice reviews! It really makes my day, and makes me a happy girl and makes me think, hmm, maybe I could write that novel after all.  
  
Valentines  
  
Buffy crept into the house holding a large bag of cat food in one hand and a large bucket of kitty litter in the other, the little kitty safely ensconced in her jacket purring away. She kicked off her shoes and tip toed into the kitchen, not wanting to make too much noise in case everyone was asleep in bed.  
  
"Now where should we put your stuff, sweetie?" she whispered to the kitty. "Maybe here next to the back door? That way everything will be on the linoleum, and if you spill something it will be easy to clean up."  
  
Buffy searched the cupboards until she found the perfect sized dishes for cat food and water, filled them both up, and set them down on the floor. She then gave the kitty one last little cuddle before setting her down next to the food. Upon seeing and smelling the kitty food, the little puffball attacked with a vengeance. "Whoa there sweetie, too much at once is going to make you sick!" Buffy said to cat. The kitten seemed to understand what Buffy had said to her and immediately slowed her pace and started eating slower, almost as if she were savoring the taste of each mouthful of Meow Mix.  
  
"While you have supper, I'm going to find a box to put your litter in. We can't have you going on the floor!" With that, Buffy made her way downstairs to search for the perfect cardboard box. After about five minutes of fruitless searching, she came upon a pile of boxes in a dark corner. "Bingo!" she cried, and just as she was reaching for a long box with short sides, she heard a shriek from upstairs. Racing up the stairs with the box in hand, Buffy expected to see a demon or some other big bad, but all she found was Dawn cradling the as of yet unnamed kitten in her arms.  
  
"Where did you find her? Is she ours? Can we keep her?" The questions were tumbling from Dawn's mouth like clowns from the mythical circus car.  
  
"She was in the cemetery, yes, and yes," replied a laughing Buffy.  
  
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Dawn cried. "You so rock!"  
  
"I rock, huh? High praise indeed coming from a fifteen year old. She was so cute, and she looked so hungry and lost that I couldn't just leave her there. So, I picked her up, stopped by the 24 hour grocery store on the way home, and here I am, Super Big Sister Buffy!"  
  
"Does she have a name? Can I name her? I've always wanted a kitty, and I've had lots of time to come up with the perfect name," Dawn said.  
  
"So what would be the perfect name?" Buffy asked. "And she's partly my kitty, too. If I don't like the name, we get to pick another, kay?"  
  
"Okay, but I'm sure you're going to just love the name I've picked out!"  
  
"So what is it? What is this alleged illustrious name?" Buffy inquired, hoping against hope that it wouldn't be something too generic like Fluffy or Kitty.  
  
"Cupid," Dawn said with a proud look on her face.  
  
"Cupid? Hmm, well, it isn't an overused generic name, and it certainly fits the season. Cupid, yeah, I like it!" Buffy decided. "Well, sweetie," she told the kitty, "it looks like you have a name. You are now officially Cupid Summers."  
  
"Cupid Summers? Since when did pets get last names?" Dawn asked Buffy.  
  
"Since just now. Cupid is part of the family and therefore is deserving of our last name, too," she replied.  
  
Dawn gave Buffy a huge smile and set Cupid back down to finish her meal. Buffy glanced at the time on the microwave and shook her head. "Dawn, its 1:30 in the morning. Why are you up so late? Don't tell me you've been on the phone all night."  
  
"Nah," Dawn said and giggled, "Just half the night. Plus your not so silent entry in the house woke me up, and I came to see how patrolling went."  
  
"Patrolling was the big yawn tonight. I didn't see a single vamp! They must all be in cozied up with their sweethearts anxiously awaiting the big V-Day," Buffy told her. "I was really looking forward to a good fight tonight, because tomorrow is going to be one big drag. The DMP on Valentine's Day, and I have to work from 6am until 10pm. It's a good thing that I don't have a boyfriend, otherwise he would dump me from feeling neglected!"  
  
"Maybe after you are done with work you could come to the Bronze? I mean, there's bound to be lots of cute guys there, and maybe you could still find a Valentine on Valentine's Day? Plus, just think of how fun it would be, and it's been so long since we have been to the Bronze together. It's almost as if you are too embarrassed to be seen in public with your little sister," Dawn said, laying on the guilt trip.  
  
"All right already! Enough with the guilt! I'll put in an appearance, just so that you know that I'm not embarrassed to be seen in public with you. That's it, no looking for Valentine's men for me, I'm not ready for that yet," Buffy stated.  
  
The little voice in her head chose that time to pipe up and say "That's because you already have a man-Spike. You know he's your soul mate, the one who completes you like no other has, not even Angel. You need to admit to this to yourself, soon."  
  
"I'm not admitting anything right now," she told the voice. "Come back some other day!"  
  
"Okay Dawn, it's late and we all need some sleep. You should go back to bed, and I'm going to hit the hay as soon as I have this box filled with kitty litter. If I don't see you at the un-godly hour of 5am, have a spectacular Valentine's Day. Oh, and I know I don't tell you this often enough, but I love you so much. I hope you know that."  
  
"Thanks, Buffy," Dawn said with a little sniff. "I love you too even when I'm a whiny teenage brat, and I'm so glad that you came back to us." Dawn gave Buffy a hug and went upstairs to bed.  
  
"Well, Cupid, I need to get some sleep cuz 5am comes pretty quickly, so let's get this box filled, and we can both bed down for the night."  
  
After filling the box, Buffy grabbed an old rag rug her mother had kept in the closet, and made a comfy bed for Cupid. "Sleep tight," she told her. "Don't let the fleas bite."  
  
Buffy turned off the lights and made her way up to her bedroom. After a quick stop in the bathroom to take care of her nightly routine, she walked into her bedroom, pulled off her clothes, and put on her pajamas. She was in the middle of hanging up her pants when she remembered the little package she had shoved in her pocket at the cemetery. She dug through her pockets until she found which one she had put it in, and she withdrew a small black velvet bag.  
  
"Another mystery," she sighed. "Here goes nothing," she said and opened the little bag. She emptied the contents into her hand and gasped when a gorgeous pair of ruby and diamond earrings fell out and landed in her palm. 


	5. The Bronze

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Cupid. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
  
  
Valentines  
  
The Bronze was packed, jam packed. Everywhere Buffy looked, all she could see was a mass of people all undulating to the music that was coming from the stage. "Well, hey. At least the band's good tonight," she thought to herself. "Nothing like a little dancing to make me forget about the hell of a day I just had."  
  
Each one of the 16 hours of her double shift had felt like an eternity. Every time she had looked at the clock, she swore it hadn't moved since the last time she had glanced at it. Finally, after serving an endless amount of customers and making too many Doublemeat burgers to count, she was free. Not wanting to miss out on some happy quality time with Dawn, she had done a quick patrol, run home, showered, dressed, did her hair and make-up, and made tracks to get to the Bronze by 11pm.  
  
"Where is everyone? You could get lost in this crush and not find your way out for days!"  
  
"Buffy! Hey Buffy, over here!" came a voice on her right.  
  
Buffy turned and looked, and saw nothing. "Damn the shortness! I hate being so short! I have to jump up and down just to see who said my name. Just a few more inches, and I would be happy. Dawn's tallish, Mom was fairly tall, and Dad is tall, so how come I was blessed with the whole small of stature thing? Life so isn't fair." Buffy was muttering to herself as she was futilely jumping up and down trying to see over the people who were blocking her way.  
  
"I give up!" she said, and just pushed her way through the crowd. "Sorry. Excuse me. Sorry. Get out of the way all right all ready! Jeez people, I'm trying to get through."  
  
Finally she pushed her way through the throng and located the voice that had been calling to her. "Dawn! I am so glad to see you! I thought that I was going to be swallowed up by the crowd and never seen again."  
  
"Hey, Buffy! How was work? Any more run-ins with demon DMP employees?" Dawn asked.  
  
"Work was work, and no, thankfully no more demon co-workers for me! How was your day? Was Cupid adjusting okay? I've always wanted a kitty, but I really don't want to go home tonight and have to clean up… well, clean up anything kitty related." Buffy replied.  
  
"Cupid was a doll, and she's definitely gotten the hang of the litter box. No cleaning worries for you tonight! Of course, if there were any, the way that Willow has been on a cleaning rampage lately, we wouldn't even know in the first place. Can you believe how clean everything suddenly became? I mean, I went to school yesterday and the place was a mess, I come home and everything is spotless! Wow, she must really be getting over her funk."  
  
"I noticed that yesterday, too. I haven't seen her yet today, but as soon as I do, I am definitely going to thank her for doing all of that. Having a clean house to come home to is way up there on my wish list," Buffy told Dawn. "Speaking of Willow, have you seen her? She had talked about inviting Tara out for coffee here tonight."  
  
"Yeah, I saw them. They were all cozied up on one of the couches. They looked so cute together! I really hope they get back together soon. You should have seen the card that Willow made for Tara. She worked so hard on it, and it was so cute! And Xander and Anya have been doing the lovey dovey thing all over this place. It's enough to make me yak, way too much sugar. Anya came over and started telling me about the Valentine's present Xander got for her, some sort of lingerie thingy, when Xander came over and about had a heart attack that she was telling me what it was. They launched into one of their 'Not the time or the place' conversations, so I left them alone, cuz way too much information, ya know? And then Janice and I saw this really cute… Buffy? What are those on your ears?" Dawn screeched, her eyes zeroing in on the ruby and diamonds attached to Buffy's ears.  
  
Buffy was surreptitiously looking around trying to avoid Dawn's eyes. "Uh, earrings?" she said in a quiet voice.  
  
"Oh my god, they are so gorgeous! Where did you get them? How can you afford earrings like that? Can I borrow them?" Another one of Dawn's famous barrage of questions came flying out of her.  
  
Knowing that Dawn was like a hound on the scent of a criminal when she sensed something was up, Buffy sighed and said, "I think they're real, and no, we can't afford them. Someone gave them to me, and no, you may not borrow them."  
  
"Who gave them to you? Was it a Valentine's Day present? Cuz I know that I would like jewelry much more than flowers or candy," said Dawn.  
  
"I don't know who gave them to me, and yeah, I like them. Last night when I went patrolling, I was sitting on one of those stone benches in the cemetery thinking. When I sat down, there was nothing there, when I got up to leave, there was a little velvet bag with these earrings in it. I don't know how I missed seeing someone put them there. I must have been lost in thought."  
  
"Ooooooooh! You have a secret admirer! That is so romantic! I wish that I had a secret admirer. Do you have any ideas about who it may be?"  
  
"Nope, I don't know of anyone who could afford earrings like this. I've been in enough jewelry stores in my life to know that these are worth a lot," Buffy said. "Enough about my earrings though. Let's go find the rest of the gang and party!"  
  
The black clad vampire that had been standing far above on the cat walk watching and listening to the interaction between the Summers girls, smiled and thought, "Only a few more things to take care of." 


	6. Wish List

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Cupid. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
A/N: Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers! Y'all rock!  
  
Valentines  
  
"Hey, Buffster! Happy Valentine's Day!" came the greeting from Xander who was snuggled up with Anya on the same couch as Willow and Tara. "I hear that you got a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise!"  
  
"Surprise?" Buffy said, her eyes widening in shock. How could anyone know about the earrings she had received, or the card? Dawn had just found out about the earrings and no one other than Willow knew about the card, and she wouldn't go blabbing about it to anyone without my permission Buffy thought.  
  
"Yeah, the check from your dad! I thought you knew about that?" Xander asked with a slight frown on his face.  
  
"A check? From my dad? When did this happen?" Buffy asked the group.  
  
"Oh, gosh, Buffy! It came today with a card, but I saw your earrings and I completely forgot to tell you! It's so cool! Dad sent a huge check and a letter promising that he would send money each month until I had graduated from college. I don't know what got into him, but I for one don't care! He's sending enough money so that you can go back to school and not have to work at the Doublemeat Palace anymore, and he's going to pay off the mortgage on the house. That way we don't have to worry about shelling out so much money each month, and we'll have enough to live comfortably!" Dawn told Buffy with a huge grin on her face.  
  
"Since when have all of my dreams started coming true?" Buffy asked with a strange look on her face. "It's almost as if someone could read my thoughts and knew exactly what I wanted," she said, her forehead wrinkling in thought.  
  
"Maybe it's a spell?" Anya said. "I once knew this girl who had a spell like that put on her. Anything she wanted came true, which was really nice for her at first because her husband wasn't so good in bed so she wished for many good orgasms, but then her husband got so tired after performing for so long that his heart gave out in the middle of"  
  
"Anya! Not the time or the place sweetie! Remember, teenager in our midst!" Xander said, cutting into her speech.  
  
"What? First I couldn't tell her about the Valentine's present you got for me because you said it was inappropriate, now you're telling me I can't finish my wonderfully appropriate to the situation story because Dawn's too young to hear it? Do you think she doesn't know what sex is? Because if she doesn't, I could explain it to her, and then we could come back, and I could finish telling my story," Anya stated.  
  
"Uh, thanks but no thanks, Anya," Dawn said with a scared look on her face. "I think I'll just go find Janice and dance some more. I'll be back in a bit, okay, Buffy?"  
  
Buffy nodded, and Dawn practically broke the world land speed record in her haste to get away from the group.  
  
Buffy started giggling and said, "I don't think I've ever seen her run so fast in the other direction before!" her giggles turning into full-fledged laughter.  
  
Willow, Tara, and Xander all looked at each other for a moment before breaking out into uncontrollable laughter themselves. Anya just stood there with a confused look on her face. "What? What is it? Why is everyone laughing? I don't get it."  
  
"I'll tell you later, honey," Xander managed to choke out between laughs.  
  
Eventually the laughter calmed down, and they were all able to breathe normally once again.  
  
Wiping the tears from her eyes, Willow said, "Maybe we should get back to what Buffy was telling us before Anya's, uh, story."  
  
"Well, you remember that conversation we had a while back when I had just started at the DMP, Wills? You know, we were sitting on the front porch, and I was telling you my wish list?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Yeah, you had only been working at the DMP for a couple of days, but you already hated it with a passion," Willow replied. "You told me that you had a list of things that you had always wanted."  
  
"Uh huh. So far most of my list has come true. Oh my gosh, Willow! I completely forgot to thank you for being so wonderful and cleaning the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room! It must have taken you quite a while."  
  
"Me? I didn't clean them. I thought Dawn cleaned so that you would let her go out tonight."  
  
"So if it wasn't you, and I know it wasn't Dawn because she thought you had done the cleaning, who was it?" Buffy mused.  
  
Tara, who had been silently observing the conversation other than her brief foray into giggle land, chose this moment to speak up. "This was after the conversation you had with me?"  
  
"Conversa… Oh, that conversation. Yeah, it was definitely after that," Buffy told her.  
  
"What exactly was on your wish list, Buffy?" Tara asked.  
  
"I wanted a clean house to come home to, a black kitty like the one I used to dream about as a little girl, enough money so that I didn't have to work at the Doublemeat Palace and could go back to school and so that Dawn could have what she needed and wanted. I wanted someone who would treat me like a princess, someone who I could have a real family with, someone who would never leave me, no matter what." Buffy sat staring off into space remembering that night. Her hand drifted up to touch the ruby and diamond earrings that adorned her ears, and her breath caught in her throat. "Oh my God!" she breathed. "I've got to go! Tell Dawn that I've got to take care of something, but that I'll be home later. Happy Valentine's Day!" she said as she took off in a dead run.  
  
"What was that all about?" Xander asked with a look of pure male confusion on his face.  
  
"I'm not sure, but I think it may have had something to do with a certain pink envelope that Buffy received yesterday," Willow said with a grin.  
  
"I think she has finally figured everything out," said Tara with a knowing smile.  
  
"What? Figured out what? Good golly, you women are so confusing!" whined Xander.  
  
"Love, you big doufus! She's figured out she's in love! Anyone should be able to see that," Anya said and whacked Xander on the arm. "Where have you been lately? She's had all the symptoms."  
  
"Buffy in love? With who? I don't believe it. She would have told me if she were interested in someone. I think she just realized that she had a big check waiting for her at home and wanted to run and put it in the bank, cuz you never know when your house is going to get robbed" Xander was babbling with that crazy "No it couldn't be!" look in his eye.  
  
"Come on, denial boy," Anya told him. "Let's go dance. We only have a half an hour left of Valentine's Day, and then you are going to take me home and give me many good orgasms!"  
  
Tara and Willow both collapsed in a fit of giggles as the couple made their way out of sight and onto the dance floor.  
  
"I think things might change for the good at Casa Buffy tonight, Tara"  
  
"Oh they will, and in more way than just one," Tara said looking deep into Willows eye's and leaned over to give her own love a soul searing kiss. 


	7. The Crypt

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Cupid. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
A/N: I was getting sugar shock re-reading my fic, so here's a little angst for those of you who don't fancy a visit to the dentist!  
  
Valentines  
  
"He had better be there," Buffy thought to herself as she ran as fast as she could in heels and the slinky red dress she had worn to the Bronze in honor of Valentine's Day. "I am going to figure this out once and for all. He has got to be the one doing all of these things from my wish list. I mean, who else could it possibly be? But how could it be him? He doesn't have the money for these earrings. Plus, my dad sent money for Dawn and me, it didn't come from Spike. And why would he give me expensive earrings in the first place? I mean, I like the sparkly things as much as the next girl, but I'd much rather have the simple things in life, like love, happiness, friends, and family. I guess I have been complaining of money woes lately, but I want Dawn to have what she needs. How can I be a good parent when I can barely make ends meet? Maybe he bought the earrings for me so that I could sell them to help pay for bills? If he bought them for me, I can't do that, I won't ever do that. Am I just jumping to conclusions that it is Spike doing all of these things because I want it to be Spike?"  
  
Buffy stopped dead in her tracks. "I. Want. It. To. Be. Spike? I want it to be Spike? Oh, God, I want it to be Spike! I want it to be Spike!" Buffy's thoughts were no longer contained to just inside her mind, unconsciously they tumbled out louder and louder out of her mouth until the echo of her last statement rushed back to her ears, "I want it to be Spike!"  
  
Realizing that she had stopped, Buffy looked around to see if anyone had heard her declaration. Seeing no one about, she once again took off in the direction she had been heading as she had left the Bronze.  
  
A few minutes of slayer speed brought her to exactly where she wanted to be, a very specific crypt in the middle of one of Sunnydale's prolific cemeteries. She stared at the door and remembered the last time she had been here. She lifted her hand to do something very foreign, knock. At the last second, she paused, "What if it isn't him? What if this was just a very big string of coincidences? Why would he still love me? I've been such a bitch to him since I came back. No, I've been a bitch to him since I've known him. Why did he fall in love with me in the first place? I've tried to kill him numerous times, I've blown up his home, I've used him for sex just so I could feel alive, and I haven't once given him anything of me. He has been so good to me and to Dawn, and even to the rest of the Scoobies." Her mind looked back on all of the unselfish acts that Spike had performed. He had taken care of Dawn when she was gone, patrolled with the gang, been her rock when she came back, and had let her do anything she wanted to him.  
  
"He let you beat him within an inch of his unlife," said the voice inside Buffy's head. "Maybe it's time you let him know how you really and truly feel about him. He's due for a little happiness, don't you think?"  
  
"You're right," Buffy replied back to the voice. "Now is most certainly the time."  
  
She squared her shoulders and once again lifted her hand, and this time she actually knocked. And knocked, and knocked, but no one answered the door. "Maybe he's trying to fix up the downstairs and can't hear me," Buffy thought. So she pushed the door open and went inside.  
  
"Spike? Spiiiiiiike? Spike! Where are you?" she called, but still no one answered. She went over to the hole that once contained his bedroom and looked down. There was no light emanating up from the hole, but she called down, "Spike, are you there?" anyway, just in case.  
  
When there was no reply, Buffy thought that she would burst into tears. "Here I am," she said, "all ready to tell the big dork how I feel, and he isn't even here! I wonder if he left town? No one has seen in the past two weeks, and I wouldn't really blame him. I broke his heart, now he has the chance to break mine."  
  
She plopped down on Spikes armchair and said, "What a way to spend Valentine's Day. I'm glad that it's almost over!" She looked down at her watch, "Only 20 more minutes left. Love and Buffy don't ever seem to agree, guess I just need to face the facts."  
  
She slowly got up out of the armchair that smelled of Spike, and with a heavy heart made her way out of the crypt towards her house. 


	8. Frog Prince

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Cupid. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: It's almost Valentine's Day in Sunnydale. Will Buffy finally realize her feelings for a certain someone?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: PG  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
A/N: I do believe this story has come to a close. I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. Thanks for all of the kind and helpful reviews, and thank you to those who have repeatedly reviewed. Oh, and if you thought I forgot about the card… well, just read on.  
  
Valentines  
  
Buffy had just reached the gate of the cemetery when her cell phone rang. It had been one of the few luxury/emergency purchases that she had made when she had started working at the Doublemeat Palace. It allowed her to let everyone know where she was if she was going to be late, well it had most of the time anyways, and it also allowed the Scoobies and Dawn to get in touch with her when they needed to.  
  
"Hello?" Buffy said.  
  
"Hey! It's me, Dawn."  
  
"Hey, Dawnie. Was the Bronze fun? Are you on your way home?" Buffy asked.  
  
"Well, that was why I was calling you. Janice asked if I could spend the night at her house tonight. She asked her mom before we went out tonight, and she said it was okay, but I forgot to ask you after Anya did the whole talking about sex thing. So can I?" Dawn said in a rush.  
  
"Have you finished your homework for the weekend?"  
  
"Yep, and I even cleaned my room today! Please can't I? Pretty please with sugar on top?" Dawn pleaded.  
  
"I guess you may. Just be sure to remember that you are a guest in Janice's home, and help out, okay?" Buffy said.  
  
"Cool! I'll see you tomorrow! Oh, and don't count on seeing Willow tonight. After you left, she and Tara started making out! They got back together! Isn't that just the best news? I am so excited for them! They decided to go back to Tara's because they said they didn't know what you would be up to and they didn't want to disturb you. Are you going to be up to anything? Because as your sister, I have a right to know!"  
  
"Nope," Buffy replied with a sigh. "I won't be up to anything. I'm just going to go home, put on my pj's and go to bed. I'm pretty beat from work today."  
  
"Huh, I wonder why they thought you would be doing something? Anyways, I gotta go! Janice's curfew is midnight, and we only have 10 minutes left to get to her house! Bye!"  
  
"Bye," Buffy said, and put her phone away. "I didn't really want to see anyone anyways," she told herself.  
  
"Only 10 minutes left of Valentine's Day, I hope everyone else had a good day, cuz mine was no shining example. At least I got one card though, that's better than nothing," she said thinking of the card she had found the day before, the card she hadn't worked up the courage to read. "Well, I only have 10 minutes left, and it is a Valentine's Day card, so it should be read on Valentine's Day. I'd better go and get it over with and see how bad it is, because my day can't get any worse." With that, she took off in a dash towards home.  
  
"I think I must have set a world record!" Buffy said, looking at her watch. "Only 5 minutes to get from the cemetery to the house, how come it always seemed to take so much longer?"  
  
Buffy opened the door and walked into the house. Immediately the scent of vanilla assailed her nose, and she could see a faint flickering light coming from upstairs.  
  
"If Dawn left candles burning when she left for the Bronze, she's going to be grounded for another week! It's a good thing I got here when I did, otherwise the house could have burnt down!"  
  
Buffy hung up her coat, checked on Cupid, who was snuggled up in her bed sound asleep, and made her way upstairs to extinguish the candles, read her card, and get ready for bed. But when she opened the partially closed door to her bedroom, she was not ready for the sight that greeted her.  
  
Candles were everywhere, their flames making waves of light dance on the walls and ceiling. It was the only light in the room, as her curtains had been tightly closed against the moonlight outside. There were red, white, and pink roses everywhere covering almost every possible flat surface. She could hear "Lieberstraum" playing softly in the background, and with wide eyes she slowly moved into her room. The door slowly shut behind her. She closed her eyes and prayed.  
  
A hand touched her shoulder and a soft voice said in her ear, "Buffy, turn around."  
  
Buffy turned around but kept her eyes tightly shut. The blood was roaring through her body, and her heart was beating like a drum. She didn't want to open her eyes just in case this was all a dream. The longer she kept them shut, the longer she could pretend that Spike had done all of this for her.  
  
"Buffy, open your eyes," the voice said, but she didn't. "Please Buffy? Open your eyes," it said again.  
  
Buffy's eyes slowly drifted open, and in front of her stood the one man who had been tormenting her thoughts of late. "Spike," she breathed. "What are you doing here? I thought you had left."  
  
"I would never leave you, pet. I would die first," he said simply.  
  
"But what about all of those things I said to you? And I blew up your crypt, and I did all of those horrible things to you," Buffy said, the tears starting to roll down her face.  
  
"I love you. With love comes forgiveness, and I have forgiven you, now you have to forgive yourself," Spike said, the sight of her tears making his heart wrench.  
  
"I don't know if I can. All of these wonderful things that you have done for me, it was you, wasn't it?" she stopped in the middle of her thought and looked at him for confirmation that it really had been he who had done everything.  
  
"Yeah, pet. It was me. I hope you don't mind that I was in your house cleaning, but you never have enough time to do that, and Red and the Bit don't help out as much as they should."  
  
"I don't mind," she whispered. "But how did you manage everything else? Especially these?" she said touching the beautiful earrings she wore.  
  
"I won the kitty at a poker game, and she looked like the little kitty you described as wanting when you were a kid, so I brought her with me to the cemetery and let her find you. I also paid a little gentlemanly visit to your father. The bloke has no right to make you work a dead end, minimum wage job so that you can support yourself and your sister while he is making money hand over fist. We came to an agreement. Of course, it took a little while to make him see things my way, but he came around pretty quickly once I showed him I wouldn't take no for an answer. And as for the earrings, well… They belonged to my mother. They are the only things that I have left to remember her by, and I wanted you to have them."  
  
"Me? You wanted me to have them? Th th thank you," she said, as the tears once again were rolling down her cheeks. "I'm honored to wear them. Your mother must have been a special lady, because she raised such a special son."  
  
Now it was Spike's turn to stare. "You you think I'm special? Me? After all that I've done, you call me special?"  
  
"After all that you've done? You've only done what a vampire is supposed to, and you haven't even done much of that for a very long time. You've changed, Spike, and it isn't just because you have a chip in your head. A piece of silicon and metal can't change you, only you can do that. You've gone from being the bloodthirsty vampire that I used to know to a caring, loving man who would lay down his life to protect me and my sister, and even my friends. I, on the other hand, have turned into everything I hate. I used you as a fix, a fix that would keep me going, a fix that would allow me to stay out of the real world, a fix that would allow me to ignore my feelings and my problems, but no more. From now on, you will never be that fix." Buffy said with conviction.  
  
"Buffy? Do you want me to leave?" Spike whispered, his throat choking with emotion.  
  
"What? No! I do not want you to leave! I want you to stay right here so I can apologize to you for everything that I've done to wrong you. And I want to thank you for every single wonderful thing that you've done for me," she said, noting that his eyes gave away none of the emotion he felt. "And… and I want to tell you that you are not a fix for me anymore. You are my life," Buffy told him, baldly. "Please don't leave me. Please," she pleaded.  
  
Spike looked away and, for a few agonizing moments, stared at one of the candles burning on her nightstand. When he looked back he had a wicked grin on his face.  
  
"Buffy? Did you read the card that I sent you?"  
  
"No," she said. "I was too afraid of what it might say."  
  
"Come here and have a seat," he said, patting the bed. "I want to read it to you. Where did you put it?"  
  
"It's in the black bag on the floor," she said as she took as seat on her bed, her heart in her throat.  
  
Spike dug around in the bag and pulled out the pink envelope he had placed on the porch only a little over 24 hours ago. He opened the envelope and pulled out the card with the frog on the front.  
  
"Are you sure you want to hear this?" he asked Buffy.  
  
"Yes, I'm sure," she answered.  
  
He opened the card and started to read:  
  
My dearest Buffy,  
  
No matter near or far, I will be where you are. You may not always see me, but forever I will be with you. When life threatens to overwhelm you with its harshness, you have but to think of me, and I will take away your pain. When you find joy, I will add to it, when you find sorrow, you can take comfort in me. I will be all that you have ever wanted me to be if you let me.  
  
I love you. Please be my valentine.  
  
Yours forever,  
  
Spike  
  
Spike was fighting the nerves that were cramping his stomach as he forced himself to look up from the card. The last time he had read something he had written to a woman, he had been horribly rejected. He sincerely hoped that Buffy would be a better critic than Cecily, but then again, he thought, Buffy had always been better than Cecily.  
  
His gaze fell upon Buffy who had her head buried in her hands.  
  
"Pet?" he said. "Love?" he tried again when she didn't respond. "Buffy, are you okay?"  
  
Buffy looked up with a tremulous smile on her face and wiped away the tears that had fallen from her eyes. "Okay?" she said. "Okay? I'm better than okay. The man I love just told me that he loves me and will never leave me, and he asked me to be his valentine. I don't think life can get much better than that, do you?"  
  
Buffy giggled as she watched Spike's eyes widen to the point where they actually looked like saucers. "Um, are you okay?" she asked. "And isn't this the part where you kiss me?"  
  
"You love me? You really truly love me? Am I dreaming? I wanted to make all of your dreams come true, but I never believed that all of mine would come true as well," Spike said as he crossed the room to Buffy.  
  
"Are you sure you want me to kiss you? Because you know where that leads, and have I made you feel like a princess? If I haven't, tell me what I need to do!" Spike told her as he cupped her head in his hands.  
  
"I really do truly love you, and honey, once you kiss me, I'll feel just like the princess who found her prince after kissing the frog. And, mister," she said and paused.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"We will not be leaving this bedroom until we take a foray, rather several forays, into what kissing leads to!"  
  
Spike smiled, his heart bursting with love, and said, "Yes, ma'am!" And he leaned down to show her just how much he loved her, and would love her, forever.  
  
A/N2: The End? Tell me what you think! 


	9. The Morning After

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Cupid. Joss is the man!  
  
Summary: Now that Buffy and Spike have gotten together, what will happen?  
  
Pairings: B/S, W/T, X/A  
  
Rating: R  
  
Spoilers: As You Were, AU after that  
  
Distribution: Fanfiction.net. Anyone else, if you want it, let me know.  
  
A/N: I had planned to have the last chapter be the end of this fic, but I just couldn't. So after many, many months, here we go again. What do you all think? Should this start a new fic, or should I just continue to tack it onto Valentines?  
  
************************************************************************  
  
"Mmmmmm, what time is it?" Buffy asked stretching her arms and snuggling a little closer to the naked body that was lying next to her.  
  
"Too early. Need sleep," the man mumbled.  
  
"What? The big bad vampire needs sleep?" Buffy said as she nuzzled his neck. "You must be all tuckered out after our marathon last night. Too tired to be up to doing anything naughty, like say, right now?"  
  
"Hmm, naughty you said? Why didn't you say that earlier?" Spike replied as he wrapped Buffy in his arms and rolled so that he was on top of her.  
  
"How's this for naughty?" And he attacked her with his mouth and hands.  
  
"Oh god, Spike! You are naughty!" Buffy moaned.  
  
It was quite a long while before either of them were able to speak normally again. They lay there wrapped around each other, just enjoying the feeling of being together.  
  
"Spike, what are we going to do now?"  
  
"Well, love, I am up for another round if you're game," he said with a smirk she couldn't see as her back was pressed up against his chest.  
  
"Not sex, Spike. What are WE going to do now? Now that we are together?"  
  
After a lengthy pause Buffy tried again, "Hello, are you still awake? I thought you would be the first to join in a conversation about a relationship between the two of us."  
  
"It's not that I don't want to join the conversation, love. I just never expected there to be a conversation."  
  
Buffy turned her head to look directly into Spike's eyes, and as she did, she could see the tears glistening in them, making the startling blue depths even more appealing.  
  
"You have to admit that a real relationship between the two of us has always been a dream of mine that I never thought would come true. But here we are, I love you, you love me. Tell me again that you love me, pet. Please?"  
  
"I love you," she said with a smile.  
  
Buffy twisted around so that she faced Spike, and she laid her head on his cool chest. Spike closed his eyes and purred in contentment. He was with Buffy, really with Buffy. In her own bed even, and she was talking about a relationship. He was ready to get on his knees and thank God for his second chance with her.  
  
"You're going to be really handy in the summer. My own personal air conditioner. But we really do need to talk about what we are going to do. Dawn and Willow should be home soon, and what are we going to tell them when they find you here? How should we break it to them that you're my boyfriend and I'm your girlfriend? Do you think they will understand?"  
  
Spike thought for a few moments and replied, "I don't think that the Bit will mind. In fact, I think that she'll be over the moon. Every time I've seen her lately she has mentioned how much she thought I would be perfect for you. Red on the other hand may be a bit more difficult to convince."  
  
"I think once she sees that you will never hurt me, she'll come around," Buffy said with conviction.  
  
"Yeah, but what about the whelp? You know that he still has a thing for you, and he always has to get in his little insults. When he finds out he is going to blow a gasket, and I don't want to be held responsible for anything that may happen if he decides to be so hypocritical and start judging you for being with me, big bad soulless vampire."  
  
Sighing, Buffy said, "You're right about Xander. Maybe we should have someone else tell him? Maybe Willow? She's really good at doing things like that, and she knows how to calm him down."  
  
"I think you may be on to something there. Now why don't we take advantage of the little time we have left before the Bit and Red come home?" he said with a lecherous grin.  
  
"Why, whatever do you have in mind?" Buffy said coyly.  
  
"How about a little game called Ride the Spike?"  
  
"Oh, that's my favorite game, I'm an expert. In fact, I'm the World Champion of Ride the Spike. Just ask my boyfriend, he'll tell you.  
  
"I think I'll find that out for myself, love," he said with a waggle of his eyebrows.  
  
"Oooo, goody! I'm always up for some practice."  
  
"And I'm always ready to oblige a lady." 


End file.
